The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority said yesterday that it would charge the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence $15 per RIPTIK book, not $17.50, as the two organizations announced on Wednesday. The lower price means that the diocese will receive 1,166 RIPTIK books, each containing 10 rides, instead of 1,000 books. The total amount paid by the diocese is unchanged at $17,500. On Wednesday, the diocese and RIPTA announced the purchase and a program to give the bus passes to those facing a financial crisis. The diocese was to begin giving out the bus pass books yesterday. RIPTA gave no reason for the lower price. The Providence Journal reported yesterday that the $17.50 price paid by the diocese for each RIPTIK book was higher than the regular price of $15. RIPTA plans to increase the price of the RIPTIK books to $17.50 as of July 1.

Disclose risks of climate change

A broad coalition of investors, state officials and environmental groups is renewing its call to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require publicly traded companies to assess and fully disclose the risks they face from global climate change. General Treasurer Frank Caprio joined the initial effort last September and is now supporting a supplemental filing with the SEC, asking the agency to take immediate action to require greater disclosure given the growing body of state, federal and international laws and regulations that are limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Caprio said those changes are creating significant economic opportunities for U.S. companies that develop climate-friendly solutions, while posing material risks for companies that fail to innovate. “Investors have a right to know which U.S. companies are preparing to face the challenges of the future and which are not,” said Caprio. “Global climate change is going to impact the bottom line for many companies and the SEC needs to play an active role in making sure investors are being provided the information they need to make informed decisions about which companies are ready to be part of a clean energy future.”

401(k) suit resolved with VikinGlobal

Trustees of defunct VikinGlobal Corp., of Warren, have agreed to administer the company’s abandoned 401(k) plan to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor alleging violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The suit, filed October 2007 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, alleged that trustees Robert Anderson and Mark Schmidt violated their fiduciary duties under ERISA during the period from Oct. 1, 2002, to the present by failing to take responsibility for the operation and administration of the plan and its assets. Anderson and Schmidt were co-owners of VikinGlobal, the plan’s sponsor until it ceased operations in early 2002. Since then, participants and beneficiaries have been unable to gain access to or obtain information about their individual accounts. Plans become “orphan plans” when they are abandoned by all fiduciaries designated to manage and administer them. The plan had 13 participants and about $12,000 in assets being held by custodian BlackRock Funds. “The department took this legal action to ensure that the participants receive their promised benefits,” said James Benages, director of the Boston Regional Office of the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). The consent judgment obtained by the department bars the defendants from serving in a fiduciary capacity to an ERISA-covered plan other than the VikinGlobal 401(k) Plan for a period of eight years and requires them to distribute the remaining plan assets to the participants and beneficiaries.

Wind Turbine Festival tomorrow

People’s Power & Light, a nonprofit energy company based in Providence, is sponsoring a Wind Turbine Festival at the Portsmouth Abbey school tomorrow. The free event runs from noon until 3 p.m. The school is at 285 Corys Lane in Portsmouth. There will be games, live music, exhibits and snacks. The 240-foot wind turbine at Portsmouth Abbey is the largest commercial size turbine operating in Rhode Island. The 660 kilowatt turbine has produced over 2.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity since it was erected on March 30, 2006. That represents about 40 percent of the school’s electricity usage. (2.6 million kilowatt-hours are enough energy to power 5,200 average New England homes for a month.) People’s Power & Light calls the event a "celebration of renewable energy." People’s Power buys renewable energy certificates from the Abbey. The certificates, which represent the green power produced by the turbine, are sold to customers of the company’s New England GreenStart program. Program customers pay an extra fee on their electricity bills each month to bring more renewable energy to New England’s power grid.

Stanley Works sells to German business

Stanley Works, the Connecticut-based company that owns Stanley Fastening Systems, in East Greenwich, sold its measuring-tool unit CST/Berger for $205 million to Robert Bosch GmbH Stuttgart. Germany-based Bosch vies with Continental AG as the world’s largest auto-parts maker and bought the measuring tool unit to expand its business for products such as leveling tools in the U.S. CST/Berger, based in West Lafayette, Indiana, has about 350 employees in the United States, Germany and Italy, and posted sales of $90 million last year. Stanley Works (SWK:NYSE) is based in New Britain, Conn., and employs about 650 workers in Rhode Island.

Public relations society hosts lecture

Lois Kelly, the award-winning author of Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing, will share her insights into new communications’ technologies, along with two other area experts, at a Web 2.0 panel discussion on Wednesday, June 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Providence Marriott Downtown, 1 Orms St. The panel discussion is sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America’s Southeastern New England Chapter. To register, visit info@prsasene.org. The cost is $20 for PRSA/SENE members, $30 for guests, $10 for students. The panel will focus on understanding new media, social networking and user-generated content as it relates to public relations professionals. Joining Kelly on the panel are Jason Parmental, director of interactive/technology at (add) ventures, and John Speck, principal of Real Advertising, a Web 2.0 advertising firm. Kelly is also a partner in Beeline Labs, a marketing innovation firm.

Fed bank closing office in Conn.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says it will close its check processing office in Windsor Locks, Conn., in September, at least four months sooner than originally planned. The Fed had announced a year ago that it would close the office in the first quarter of 2009. But the Fed has moved the date to Sept. 19, according to a filing with the state Labor Department. In that filing, the Fed said the remaining 94 workers at the center will be laid off. The Fed says it’s closing the center because of the dwindling use of traditional paper checks and the shift toward electronic processing of check-based transactions.

Boston Ventures joins Petty team

Boston Ventures, a private equity firm in Massachusetts that owns stakes in Six Flags amusement parks and Motown Records, has added a controlling interest in Nascar’s Petty Enterprises to its media and entertainment holdings. David Zucker, 45, will be CEO of the Mooresville, N.C.-based company, said Kyle Petty, who co-owned the team with his father Richard Petty. Financial terms and details of the transaction won’t be released. Boston Ventures is the latest in a series of private equity investors in Nascar as costs squeeze teams in the racing league.

Forecast: Computer shipments rising

Two New England research firms on Wednesday said growth in computer shipments worldwide will be more robust than they had previously forecast for the year, driven by continuing strength in sales of portable computers. IDC now expects shipments to rise 15.2 percent over last year, compared with a 2008 forecast of 12.8-percent growth that the Framingham, Mass.-based firm made in March. Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner, which uses different methods than IDC to track shipments, now forecasts a 12.5-percent hike from the 264 million units it counted last year, up from its 10.9-percent projection in March. IDC’s new forecast predicts global PC shipments will reach 310 million units this year, up from 269 million last year. Portable computers have posted stronger growth rates than desktop models in recent years, and IDC projects a 35-percent growth rate for portable models this year. Factors driving recent portable PC growth include the replacement of desktop models with notebook computers and the emergence of extremely low-cost portables popular in developing nations.